The big event – Guy Hands vs Citigroup – is up and running in New York. Those of us who assumed a settlement would be struck at the eleventh-hour have been surprised. Perhaps we underestimated how deeply the two sides hate each other. Or perhaps we misjudged how hard, in pure business terms, it would be for Hands or Citigroup to accept anything less than total victory.

If it's the latter, poor old EMI – the company stuck in the middle – may not find its future resolved as quickly as its executives would wish. Clarity will arrive eventually – but maybe not before the appeal.